Engoz Tribal Zu'aan

History

The history of the Engoz tribal zu'aan began in the final centuries of the Shattering Age, when the Laenaia zu'aan took the world's disaster as an opportunity to evolve into one of the biggest tribes. By the year 4E 432, they had grown in power and number enough to consider themselves a kingdom and dub themselves one of the dominant tribes of the time. They controlled a vast territory over the fertile river lands of Taerel, an area full of opportunity and growth and development. Greatness, however, would prove to be the downfall of the zu’aan empire.

The sheer size and power made it difficult to control and the territory difficult to defend. Instead of falling to kin'toni such as many other tribes, the internal conflicts created by the semi-kingdom's contradictions were what created the death sentence for its own existence, since by the year 4E 441, the Laenaia zu’aan had been driven mad by extremist politics and had degenerated into a starving shell of their former greatness, barely able to sustain themselves on their own fertile lands.

The coup de grâce would be dealt in a perfect storm of destruction. In the year 141 4E, the Laenaia zu’aan would be beset on both sides by a kin’toni confederation invasion and civil war, with brother turned against brother on the streets of their great empire, which didn't just fall, but shattered into pieces. Those pieces would evolve into three different tribes within the late stage of the Shattering Age: the Garest tribal zu'aan, members of the Laenaia's elite, along with loyal soldiers which fled north.

The Edano tribal zu'aan, which encompassed much of the lower classes of the Laenaia, this group of which fled south into the Ashlands; and the tribe within this article, the Engoz tribal zu'aan, which placed too much value in their now-fallen home to flee it such as the other groups. The beginning years of their individual history were marked by countless examples of oppression by the invading kin'toni, which the Engoz's strong will allowed them to keep fighting and defend the settlements they not only fought to build but also decided to keep fighting for.

Considering how most members either held too much symbolic value to their home to leave, while others just saw other issues as fatalistic, either expecting starvation on their journey or kin'toni killings. In the year 145 4E, the Engoz officially fended off the kin'toni threat; celebrations erupted across the old semi-kingdom's lands; zu'aan celebrated with each other, hand in hand, just as how each of them fought shoulder to shoulder; but bohemian events aside, the tribe now faced countless challenges with the end of the Shattering Age, not only with the imposed chaos from the volcanic winter and conflicts for survival.

But how a massive 80% of their settlement was fully destroyed as they fought to preserve the home built for them by the Alaneia; and from this collective trauma and undeniable issues is where the Engoz tribal zu'aan truly emerge.

Psychology

Culture

The cultural notions of the Engoz follow many of their self-perceptive ideas as a sort of living ruin which exists to keep alive what was once a strong and undeniable force within Taerel, carrying themselves with strong pride of their path, which sounds like an important task, though not without its contradictions, some of which being of how they, unlike many other zu'aan tribes, focus more on the past than building for a better future, creating many sorts of performative rituals around reliving all the imperial rule they lost from the end of Laenaia.

Allowing for the development of cultural ideals birthed from all of the contrast met in between the contradictions of the tribe and their distinct characteristics that have allowed them to persist with their so valued memory until late stages of the Twilight Age. Going back to how the majority of their settlements got fully destroyed, it has developed quite the measure when it comes to the act of sanctifying the land they inhabit, seeing as how the Engoz tribal zu'aan tend to treat each individual brick as something entirely important for the maintenance of the tribe.

Even creating cases where families gather together to repair small sections of rubble and debris slowly, sometimes writing in the clay to leave slight marks of appreciation of the new generation for those which fought to defend their home, creating a very spiritual manner of observing the material losses around them. They also take to many practices which allow them to persist with much of their obsessive adherence to many of the old formalities of Laenaia, almost as if they were following a sort of protocol which has been reduced to nothing more but a proper ghost.

Seen in the way how many members of the tribe still refer to each other with grand titles and utilize quite the formal vocabulary, even correcting each other for not speaking formally in any social situation, despite the fact they, in the majority, live in scavenged tents and leftovers of what was once proper housing. Furthermore, many cultural traits of the Engoz tribal zu'aan also reflect a lot of their psyche, especially the parts which describe their psychological attachment to their past and the achievements they conquered within the lifespan of the tribe's history.

Something deeply expressed in the vast array of artistic expressions which are available to the members of the Engoz tribal zu'aan; one of the key traits of their artistic expression is the practice of mending together broken pieces or fragments, most of the time from pottery or even glass, and proceeding to fuse it all back together as a way to create a different distinct mosaic, often times putting dyes or even melted metals in those cracks as to highlight them, all of which also naturalized amongst many of those zu'aan the notion of valuing things which were broken, fixed, and then reused, way more than items that are brandished as brand new.

Government

Now, their government style is where the over-valuing of their old structures is given the most power, observing how their governmental functioning keeps the rigid legal frameworks of the old semi-kingdom of Laenaia, despite the deep contradictional and exploitative nature of said system, and also despite the fact that it is now being applied at the dusty remains of what was once a big tribe; allowing for the existence of a complex and extremely theatrical bureaucracy that avoids the reality of current situations in the name of valuing the past and the memories around the greatness of Laenaia.

Though the members of the Engoz tribal zu'aan have a fully written legal code around the maintenance of a monarch, and the functioning of the tribe is very much shaped around the thought of such monarch existing, they fail to name any figure to take such place due to the fact that most of the Engoz believe the true monarch would be from the family of Laenaia such as the hierarchical system dictated before; which, instead of being simply symbolic, creates a strong power gap that makes even more room for political conflicts within the tribe's structure and day-to-day life.

Instead of allowing for the image of a proper king taking place and governing over the tribe under a new family name, they instead decide to name a lord regent, which is a figure who holds the executive branch of power within the Engoz tribal zu'aan; though, even despite this figure often taking most of the administrative role of their tribe, it is not valued as more than a plain seat-warmer for the return of their "true monarch." Even despite said cultural inconsideration for the regent's figure, it remains undoubtedly as the highest achievement in the accumulation of political power a member of the tribe can achieve.

It is not fully absolute, being technically bound by the Laenaian legal code, but it is without a question the most powerful position a member of the tribe can come to have, which increases the issues within the tribe considering the power gap left by the king and the lack of popular approval around leadership. Their justice system often goes around a series of judges within a specific class which are many times forced to wear tattered formal robes over any sort of usual armor.

They hold what is argued to be the second biggest position within the tribe and are necessary to the permanence of any regency for a long period of time, since they are legally obliged to take in popular votes for the removal of a regent, these votes of which can only be concretely put into practice with the approval of the judiciary body; thus, many times, these turn out to be some of the wealthiest members within the Engoz since they often take in many bribes from the regents to guarantee said regent's position remains intact.

Which, in practice, places the governmental system of the Engoz not only in an extremely contradictory stance, but also one extremely prone to corruption.

Military

The military of the Engoz tribal zu'aan allows for a haunting display of what can be fairly compared to the last resistance of an army within the end of a siege or perhaps a fully proper war, which allows for, once more, a strange functional modality which builds itself and its doctrine around the psyche and cultural notions of the Engoz tribal zu'aan, which brings in with itself many contradictions between the status and notions they praise and the properly necessary performance within a tribe that is seen from the outside as live rubble.

One of their initial doctrines which relates itself the most to other historic examples of military forces around the world of Taerel is that of always dedicating your life to a battle as though it was your last, fully embracing the idea of a last stand, which makes it so the members of the Engoz's military don't seek to acknowledge retreat as any sort of tactical option, throwing themselves in often times suicidal charges, all birthed from their developed mentality that is rooted on that whole stay-and-die dynamic from the pact they formed amongst themselves during the fall of Laenaia.

Making it so the Engoz soldier often times prefers being found buried under some random collapsing wall than to be found abandoning the same wall. The spine of their military forces is mostly focused around what is titled the Iron Guard, a direct backbone of the tribe that acted as a direct continuation of the most elite of the elite units of the Laenaian squadron, or so is what is commonly believed and told amongst the members of the Engoz, considering most of the elite military actually left along the elites on their path north for new settlements.

Though, what isn't up for debate is that the members of this Iron Guard are extremely disciplined and skilled fighters, especially when it comes to their fanatical performances, making full dress parades through mud, rubble, and ash, allowing for the creation of an etiquette on what should be considered correctness for a soldier's uniform and their ability to tend to it despite the climate or environment around them, something which is seen as a means to keep alive the "Imperial Spirit."

Since the members of the Engoz's armed forces often refuse to leave even any spots of land which they hold with the slightest affection, the military turned to a different method as a means to defend the tribe, often choosing underground fortifications and intricate tunnel systems as a means to keep defense of the tribe plausible. Many of these were actually constructed during the many invasions and internal conflicts which the tribe faced back in its history lane, be it as both defensive matters for many of the families which stayed in the Engoz.

As well as proper military strategy, and many of these were kept and adapted for more modern means, allowing the Engoz to maintain their history alive despite the always challenging future in front of them.

Religion

The faith developed by the Engoz tribal zu'aan is incredibly somber in its liturgical theology, often allowing for the existence of a practical functioning bridge amongst the contrasts of the current ruins that make up the tribe and all of that glorious ghost valued from the past, which translated into a practical faith which keeps the members of the tribe glued into the spiritual level as a means to not focus on their current and very real poverty, reframing their survival as a holy vigil.

Their faith also revolves around a fundamental center pillar: the idea of a vacant throne, believing that the spirit of the Laenaia tribe remains alive despite all the evidence showing the fall of the past tribe; it is, for the Engoz, highly defended that this spirit from the older tribe has simply gone quiet, but still persists as a true divine entity for the tribe's theology. The justification given for the fact that it has gone quiet is often attributed to a responsibility which the zu'aan of the tribe must bear for their sins during much of the civil war and even during the kin'toni invasion.

This translates itself into religious ceremonies where ornate chairs, without anyone taking a seat, are kept sealed on a higher platform where the members of the tribe can pray from a distance; there, they are told to believe that their adherence to those old laws allows such a chair to become a proper beacon, a call for the divine presence of the old Laenaia tribe. Following much of their aesthetic around fixing and displaying the issues which made something broken, such as jars or ceramic pots, much of the creation myths of the Engoz's religion also seem to focus on this specific trait.

Putting a lot of value on symbolic things which display something once shattered that lives in a moment of constant repair. This is best illustrated in how, in many rituals of the tribe, they show imagery of a shattered world being rebuilt from the ground up by their deities; this is translated in day-to-day life as well, in how they often believe that every time a worker repairs a wall or a tool, or even when an artist mends a pot, they are performing divine action—a proper sacrament in the world of the living.

They also tend to believe that souls still inhabit much of Taerel, and, especially in their tribe, they believe that the souls that came from the deaths during Laenaia's civil war and the kin'toni invasions still keep themselves around that old territory as proper guardians, which remain to protect the soil they fell dead on. This leads to a religion that has a common practice of frequent consultations with these ghosts, be it for advice, for knowledge, or for a simple venting mechanism, which is often done individually within one's head.

Or within poems and writings placed around graves, or even with individuals which are trained to translate the language of the dead into that of the living.

Miscellany

Nearby Groups

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